Fandy Liu can't go home to see her son. Frank Mo can't go home to his mother. If they do, they fear they'll be tortured and killed.
That's because they practice Falun Gong, a form of Chi Kung similar to Tai Chi, which is outlawed in their native China.
"I want to go back to China," said Liu, a graduate student in computer science. "I cannot go back."
She said her son lives with relatives, and she can only communicate with him via telephone.
"Sometimes (when) I call my son, I feel the telephone is different," Liu said.
Mo, a 29-year-old software developer from Akron, said he also talks with his mother by telephone.
"Whenever I say something about Falun Gong, she gets worried because all the international phones are tapped," he said.
Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, was created by Li Hongzhi in 1992 as a way to improve people's health.
"By practicing Chi Kung, people can get better health," Mo said. "By practicing, they can make energy flow throughout the whole body."
Liu said she lost 50 pounds only a few months after beginning Falun Gong practice. "Many persons feel when they start the Falun Gong, they quickly gain good health," she said. "My body changed quickly. I was surprised."
While Mo said he began to suffer fewer headaches after practicing Falun Gong, the real benefit was in his outlook on life.
"It was very easy to be mad at people," he said of his attitude before starting Falun Gong. After practicing, he gained a clearer head.
"I got more understanding to people," he said. "So even if people treat me bad, I won't act that way."
But despite any benefits Falun Gong may cause people, Jiang Zemin, former chairman of the People's Republic of China, outlawed it.
"He (Jiang) said Falun Gong is a threat and is outside the government control," Mo said. He said not all government officials have the same feeling about Falun Gong.
Before it was outlawed, Master Li received multiple awards from the Chinese government. A 1993 thank-you letter from the China JianyiYongwei Foundation, a Chinese crime-prevention group, thanked Li and other Falun Gong practitioners for helping up to 100 representatives at a conference of the Public Security Ministry.
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The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group puts out an annual report of the actions of the Chinese government against Falun Gong practitioners. Among the information are pictures and records of people the reports say were tortured or killed by the government for their beliefs. The report also has descriptions of torture methods.
The 2003 report lists more than 50 methods it says the Chinese government has used against practitioners, including force-feeding them with urine and feces, inserting bamboo sticks under their fingernails and shocking their genitals with electric batons.
"They want to control the person's beliefs," Liu said.
However, Falun Gong practitioners in the United States have stood up against Jiang. They hold an annual march on Washington, and recently they sued Jiang for human rights violations in a Chicago court.
"We are not against the Chinese government," Mo said. "We just want to stop the persecution."
The court dismissed the case, but Mo said Jiang used all his resources to avoid prosecution.
"He even persuaded U.S. businessmen," Mo said. "He argued that this may harm U.S.-Chinese relations."
Mo said he believes the Falun Gong practitioners will appeal the case to a higher court. Although Falun Gong is still outlawed in China, Mo said he believes he will one day be able to go home again.
"If one day came when all the Chinese people knew the truth, I believe they will come," he said.
Materials for anyone interested in learning more are available at www.falundafa.org, Liu said.
"You can download from the Internet," she said. "Everything is free."
Mo said Falun Gong's teachings are beneficial to anyone who wants to become a better person.
"To keep a very calm heart, to clear people's minds -- I think that is very good," he said.
http://www.stater.kent.edu/stories_old/03fall/303/persecutingmeditation.asp
Category: Falun Dafa in the Media